Progress Update, February 2022
The St. Thomas 2025 Strategic Plan debuted in February 2021. We continually track and report on our progress; here are key developments from the past year, as of February 2024:
The Dougherty Family College has attracted media attention for its work to provide a pathway for underrepresented students. The Star Tribune featured DFC in a September 2023 feature. In Inside Higher Ed, Dean Buffy Smith, said the college's diversity reflects its close, carefully forged ties with community organizations, including boys' and girls' clubs, mosques, churches, synagogues, and cultural centers.
The article highlighted that the college's average two-year graduation rate is 56 percent, and 80 percent of DFC graduates transfer to a four-year institution. Three-fourths of associate degree graduates are currently in or have graduated from a bachelor's degree program. Since the college's founding, 313 students earned associate degrees, and 86 students have graduated with four-year degrees, most of them from the University of St. Thomas.
Nationally, a little over 31 percent of community college students transfer, and of those who transfer, slightly fewer than half complete a bachelor's degree within six years, according to a 2022 report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.